Summer cricket — what a bonus!

As the summer of cricket is upon us, excitingly I have to admit, I am still left wondering what is the situation with the massive amounts of Cricket South Africa (CSA) money that seemingly is still under discussion.

As recently as September 8 2011, Telford Vice reported in the Business Day the following:

CSA executive consultant Michael Owen-Smith tried to clear up the confusion. “The report has been sent to Mr Sooklal’s house and he will receive it when he gets home this evening (last night),” he said. “He is the person who will take Dr Nyoka through the report once he has made an appointment … Mr Khan sent the report through to the chief financial officer for safekeeping.”

Now to be quite honest I believe that this little soap opera has gone on way too long. From what it seems, CSA President Mtutuzeli Nyoka having been “fired” from office and then re-instated may well be something which has been left untouched. And a CSA CEO, Gerald Majola, who is perhaps surrounding himself with loyalists and expediting bonus payments, allegedly without following procedure, is just not a way to go into a new cricket season where CSA has for the first time embraced absolute professionalism in their approach to the leadership of the teams.

AB de Villiers, the T20 and ODI captain, is missing the Australia matches due to injury and Graeme Smith retaining the mantle of Test captain is a key step toward appreciating the intensity of International cricket and the differences in the games and thus the leadership needed in each. However it would seem that talking leadership, the CSA leadership does not have its house in order and this is worrying. If I was a Protea player I would want to know why this has not been resolved. As a SA sport supporter I certainly want to know why it has not been resolved.

The issue at play is that Majola allegedly received a bonus payment of R1.4 million without proper approval. To add insult to injury the payment of this money was reportedly proposed at a board meeting, which declined the proposal to then be told that it had already been paid on May 30 2011. This is for an official that has a reported monthly salary of R177 000. Now the implication is quite simply this, if the administrative leadership cannot even manage their own finances and procedures effectively how can professional cricketers and the SA public take them seriously? I am battling to. Such financial irregularity tells me that this leadership needs to be investigated, rehabilitated if required or their employment terminated.

It is common knowledge that some sponsors will not conclude a deal with CSA until these issues are completely involved. Richard Glover, the commercial head of CSA has gone record with Sport 24 saying “it’s an open secret that a number of new deals will only be announced once the bonus matters have been cleared up”. This statement was made on August 19. So now we have a clear inability to effectively manage internal process and finances and we cannot then solve the issue speedily so as to allow the most important part of this process — the actual product, cricket to be played without any issues hanging over their employer.

I am of the opinion that the CSA president Nyoka is making an effort to resolve this matter and is an audience member to this bureaucratic comedy playing out in the public space.

Even Sascoc has not been able to expedite a solution speedily — it is quite shocking. No corporate enterprise would allow this to happen. I am not even certain that Sports and Recreation Minister Fikile Mbalula could sort this mess or irregularities — not sure if he has even tried.

Sort this out immediately is my call to the CSA board, sort this out so that our cricketing image is not tarnished further. Sort this out so the SA players, some of which are classified by Glover as the best in the world, can be employed credibly by an institution that talks the talk and walks the walk.

This welcome to former Protea and Indian World Cup-winning coach Gary Kirsten, is somewhat of a rude awakening and reminder of where he is employed … I hope the leaders look after their assets/players better than they manage the CSA finances and processes.

It remains for me to try and see positives in SA Sport so I want to wish the Proteas good luck in the T20, ODI and Test series against the respected foe Australia. I hope your rugby counterparts make your life a little easier by winning the Rugby World Cup quarter-finals, no doubt that the opposite would make for interesting banter out in the middle.